A directional control valve system has been known having a meter-in flow control valve, a pair of load checking valves and a meter-out flow control valve in which one of the two load checking valves is fed with pressure fluid through the meter-in flow control valve to feed pressure fluid into a first chamber of a hydraulic actuator and pressure fluid in a second chamber of the hydraulic actuator is permitted to flow out into a reservoir through the meter-out flow control valve.
In such a directional control valve system, pressure fluid is fed selectively into one of the two load checking valves by switching the meter-in flow control valve. This requires the meter-in flow control valve to be provided with a pump port, a first outlet port and a second outlet port and to be constructed so that displacement of a spool may allow the first or second outlet port to communicate with the pump port. The essential need for these three ports has thus rendered the system unduly complex in structure.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a directional control valve system that can resolve the above-mentioned problem.